1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of crushing fruit and vegetables and an enclosed crushing apparatus for carrying out the same, and in particular to a process for producing juice and paste from the fruit and vegetables.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a typical process for producing juice or paste from fruit or vegetables, particularly fruit juice from apples or other fruit, an antioxidant such as L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is in general used as an additive in order to prevent discoloration from being caused by oxidation due to an enzyme, such as polyphenol oxidase, which is typically contained in apples.
In another conventional process for producing vegetable juice from carrots, after carrots have been peeled and cut into pieces, blanching is commonly effected in order to prevent discoloration of the pieces from being caused by oxidation due to the action of enzymes contained in the carrots. The blanched pieces, in turn, are subjected to crushing and extraction.
However, the former method involves various problems; for example, L-ascorbic acid is expensive, and the natural flavors of fruit are damaged by the chemical reduction action of L-ascorbic acid. Also, the latter method involves the following problems. Since, during blanching, effective components such as sugar and natural flavors contained in carrots escape into the boiling liquid, the quality of the obtained vegetable juice is degraded. Further, since carrots are subjected to the three steps of cutting, blanching, and crushing, a remarkable increase in the scale of equipment and the operating cost thereof cannot be avoided.